


Is It Over?

by intricate_glass_box



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Guilt, Regret, nearly ending the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-10 22:49:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17434946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intricate_glass_box/pseuds/intricate_glass_box
Summary: A telling of the climactic events that unfolded due to Teams Magma and Aqua in one particular timeline. Or, Maxie's experience of losing everything but the world.





	Is It Over?

Team Magma was so close. Maxie, Tabitha, and a few high ranking grunts were en route to the cavern where they had pinpointed the long-sleeping Groudon to lie. Maxie, nervous and excited, rushed several steps ahead of his subordinates. It had been years. Decades. So much research, all the struggles of developing a large legally and morally gray organization — the blood, sweat, and tears leading to this moment flashed before his eyes, and he simply couldn’t maintain his usual professional composure. They were so close to ushering in a new age for the human race, with space for people and Pokémon both to live and farm and grow to new heights. 

Nearly to the cavern, an urgent message telegraphed in. Courtney, his third in command, had been leading a recon team in tracking Team Aqua. It seemed they were at a similar stage in their own plans… the only possible wrench in the workings. 

“Leader Maxie! Archie is about to reach the cavern! He has the Blue Orb and he is going to wake Kyogre!” 

Hope turned to rage. “NO!” he shrieked, diverting course immediately, running back to the vehicle. “We MUST stop them — we’re so close!” 

Maxie could not, would not let Archie take this from him at the last possible moment. He grit his teeth. “Push this to its limits. Get me there at all costs.” 

———

As soon as the vehicle stopped, Maxie threw open the door and ran off at a dead sprint. All he could think was “too late. I’m too late. Archie is somehow one step ahead of me after all this. After everything.” 

He burst into the cave where Kyogre had laid sleeping for millennia just in time to see Archie raise the Blue Orb. A blinding light spilled forth. Maxie had to stop and shield his eyes; he heard Archie’s triumphant laugh echoing off the walls and felt all his hope and adrenaline drain from his body. He went cold, and tried hard to hold onto his fury as if blocking out the despair leeching into him could prevent its cause. The madman was going to flood the world. “No…” he gasped out, no air left in his lungs. He was too late. He’d given up everything for nothing.

The light subsided as Kyogre broke through the roof of the cavern and resumed its ancient quest to flood the world, now unchecked by opposing Groudon. 

Maxie became aware of the tears in his eyes and on his cheeks, and Tabitha’s hand on his shoulder. The others had followed as they could, behind his frenzied pace. He tried to compose himself as he observed several unaffiliated figures also in the cavern - police, perhaps? And, even the region’s Champion with the local gym leader Wallace. We’re all too late, Maxie thought, hopeless. 

Maxie followed their gaze to the gaping hole in the ceiling. There, a torrential downpour the likes of which hadn’t fallen to earth since ancient times spilled through. It was ominous, and struck an instinctual fear with its very power. 

“We’ve done it!! We’ve really done it!!” Archie was ecstatic, celebrating, jubilant. He was the only one. Even his own teammates looked fearful. He spun around, seeming to notice Team Magma, and the others in the room, for the first time. “You’re all too late to stop me! Soon, this world will be cleansed! It will be made into a paradise!” He grinned, cocky and manic, making eye contact with Maxie for the first time. “I am so glad you were here to witness my greatest triumph.” Not waiting for a response, Archie continued to his own Team, “Quick, we must get to the surface to shape our new world!!” 

“Archie—“ Shelly began, only to be cut off by crackling from Archie’s communications device. 

The message was garbled by static, but something akin to “Sir, Kyogre is out of control” came through before Archie, high on success, guffawed back. “NONSENSE! I have the Orb! Kyogre will listen to me!” 

He threw out his Crobat and ordered, “Ascend to the surface!” before urging his Pokémon to fly into the storm. Simultaneously, some of the likely-police figures gave orders to others to move out. Others tried to apprehend the Aqua grunts, who released their own flying Pokémon or unfurled ropes to escape the cave. They didn’t even glance at Team Magma. 

The cavern was nearly empty before Maxie realized his team was waiting on him for orders as well. “We should… we should go, too.”

He wasn’t sure what else they could do. 

———

The scene on the surface was so much worse. As far as the eye could see held dark clouds and sheets of rain. They were soaked in fractions of a second. 

During Team Magma’s delay, Archie had tried desperately to get Kyogre’s attention, aiming to focus its power to shape the world as he desired. The ancient creature, however, simply rampaged.

This realization pierced the fog clouding Maxie’s entire being. He couldn’t control Kyogre, even with the orb? His thoughts flashed to the orb he himself possessed — the one he had been rushing to awaken Groudon with. 

“It’s not even at its full strength yet, sir, we must do something!” A grunt — perhaps the one from the phone? — pleaded. 

“It’s not WORKING! Why isn’t it working?!” Archie screamed into the gale.

“We saw evidence of this!” Shelly shouted, frustrated. “At the Weather Institute! Even some of our own scientists suggested our models were insufficient! You wouldn’t listen!” 

Maxie had heard the same things from his admins and scientists. “My god…” he whispered, the reality of the situation crashing down around him. “We’ve been fools…” 

Along the way, Maxie had claimed he was doing everything in a scientifically sound way, insisting that everything should be researched and tested before being enacted. But of course, all this research and testing was done after Team Magma had already been built up. With the clarity of hindsight and the perspective of one who has failed insurmountably, Maxie was able to recognize all the times he had tweaked or glossed over good practice. 

He remembered those results — those that suggested maybe the powers Groudon and Kyogre held were too much for this world to bear, too much for any person or Pokémon to control — but what was he to do? Tell the team “sorry folks, it’s been a good run but it’s time for you all to go home?” Risk going to jail for the illegal things only barely covered up by the organization? Let Archie continue Team Aqua, knowing Maxie had given up? He, the so-called “great” Maxie, was a prideful man, one who truly to this moment he had believed he would have been capable of controlling a god. It took staring down the apocalypse to make him realize how pitifully wrong he was — how presumptuous and insignificant they both were.

Archie looked at him, pure fear plain on his face for several moments before devastation broke through. After all this time, they were much the same.  
———

Kyogre was attempting to head to the Cave of Origin to reach its full power. It was decided that Wallace and Steven would try to intercept and tame Kyogre by defeating it in battle. They set off at once, as of course there was no time to waste. 

“We should… do something,” Maxie said to Archie. He felt equally responsible. If Maxie had moved just a bit faster that morning, this would be Groudon’s rampage by his own hand. 

“…Yeah,” Archie said. Neither was able to suggest what exactly they could do. Without the threat of the other overtaking them, would either have carried on this far? 

“You two have done enough,” a furious police officer — the leader? — admonished. “You will follow us to Sootopolis in case your knowledge, technology, or bodies prove useful in ending this crisis.”

They were ushered onto a craft and taken. 

Side by side, Maxie and Archie sat silent in shock, mourning the last 30 years.

During the short flight, Maxie realized he would be taken to jail at the end of this, and so he mourned the rest of his life, too. He did not let himself think of the other paths he could’ve taken. They had not cuffed him, so (too little too late) he discreetly sent out the emergency scramble and disband order.

———

They did not prove useful at the maw of the Cave of Origin. The city was deserted, and all they could do was wait, unless you believed in something to pray to, to see if Steven and Wallace would be successful or the first casualties in the end of the world. 

It felt like hours.

———

Minutes later, it seemed the primordial rains were lightening. Maxie perked up, hoping desperately that they had not ended everything.

It continued to clear up, approximating a heavy thunderstorm then a brisk shower then a mere smattering. Everyone held still in a hush until they watched the final drops fall.  
It was Maxie, glancing nervously at Archie, who first spoke: “Is it… over?” 

“Y… yeah, I think it is,” Archie replied after a minute, too afraid to reply quickly lest the nightmare start again. 

Freezing cold and utterly devastated, Maxie felt tears prick in his eyes once more. He wrapped his arms around himself, his vision blurring as he tried to resist crying, but he was exhausted and weighed down by regret and guilt. A quiet sob, then another, wracked his shoulders. He was distracted, wiping at his tears under his glasses in some attempt to keep hold of the last scrap of pride he had, when Archie put his arms around Maxie. 

Maxie gave up, letting the rest of the world fall away and crying in earnest, burying his face in Archie’s broad chest. He felt Archie’s face in his hair and, a moment later, could tell he was crying too from the droplets of warmth on his already-soaked head. 

They stayed like that longer than they deserved - two men opposite and the same, both overcome with the knowledge of just how much they’d wasted and damaged.


End file.
